USask Health Researchers Honored for Achievement, Impact, and Excellence

Dr. Hassan Vatanparast (PhD), professor in the School of Public Health and the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, is this year’s recipient of the SHRF Career Achievement Award. The award honours a Saskatchewan-based researcher who has made significant contributions to the health of the province, advanced knowledge, informed decision-making, and built local capacity across their career. 

Vatanparast was celebrated for his impactful nutrition and public health research that has informed local, national and international dietary recommendations, bone health and osteoporosis interventions, empowerment-focused Indigenous community health practices, and immigrant and refugee nutrition programming. 

Dr. Robert Laprairie (PhD), associate professor in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, was recognized with a SHRF Impact Award. The award recognizes a Saskatchewan health researcher who received a SHRF Establishment Grant five years prior, and celebrates their role in building capacity, advancing knowledge, and making health, economic and social impacts in Saskatchewan.   

Laprairie received the award in recognition of his 2018 SHRF-funded research, Modulation of the Endocannabinoid System in the GAERS Rat Model of Absence Epilepsy, and the collaborations, additional grants, and knowledge translation that he has led since.  

SHRF’s Excellence Awards recognize researchers and their teams who held the top-scored grant applications in the previous year’s funding cycle. USask researchers achieved the top-scored applications and associated Excellence Awards in all four grant categories. These include:  

Dr. Justin Botterill (PhD), College of Medicine 
Exploring Hippocampal Circuits that Cause and Prevent Temporal Lobe Epilepsy  

Dr. Stacey Lovo (PhD), School of Rehabilitation Science
Expanding Pediatric Rehabilitation in Northern First Nation Communities 

Dr. Ivar Mendez (MD, PhD), Rachel Johnson, Dr. Scott Adams (MD, PhD), College of Medicine; 
Dr. Stacey Lovo (PhD), School of Rehabilitation Science 
Enhancing Access to Ultrasound Services Using a Telerobotic Ultrasonography System in Rural Southern Saskatchewan 

Dr. Stacey Lovo (PhD), School of Rehabilitation Science; Dr. Gary Linassi (MD), College of Medicine 
Community-Directed Virtual Care Strategies for the Management of Neuropathic Pain in Remote Indigenous Communities